The school was allowing students to wear pride shirts and symbols, with some teachers even wearing pride related shirts, Daniel Segura said. The principal called Audra the night she was sent home to apologize and to say students can wear pride flags in school. Audra Segura said she was not given any proof the flag was a learning distraction. Supreme Court has ruled in the past that freedom of speech and expression was not restricted in public schools, if it was not a disruption. Daniel said he saw in a private Facebook group that the same rule was not being enforced at Northeast Middle School.
“We would understand if there was a political statement, but since sexualities are personal identities, it should not be a problem.”Īfter looking into the school’s dress code, Audra and her father, Daniel Segura, found nothing against capes or flags being worn as capes in the dress code. “What (the school) said we were not allowed to (do) was wrong,” Segura said. This incident has some parents questioning how the school district handles student expression in the school.
The day after this incident, Segura helped organize a protest of students wearing pride flags at Jefferson Middle School to protest this rule. After sitting in the principal’s office for an hour or two, Segura was given the choice of removing her flag, staying in the principal’s office, or being sent home.
